The
Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, required that infirmary accommodation be
separate from workhouse buildings. To relieve overcrowding in
its workhouse in Newington, near the Elephant and Castle, in 1871 St
Saviour's Union (made up of the parishes of St Saviour and St
George-the-Martyr in Southwark, and St Mary in Newington) planned to
build a new infirmary outside its area near Peckham Rye Common, as no
suitable site could be found in Southwark. However, the plan
was abandoned when the cost proved prohibitively high.
Instead, the Union was allowed to purchase a 6.5 acre site in
East Dulwich, on the edge of the Dulwich Estate near Champion Hill
station, for £14,000 on condition that the exterior of the
buildings have 'a more pleasing effect' than would normally be
expected for such an institution.

Despite
virulent objections from the local populace led by Charles
Barry (1823-1900), the architect and
surveyor of the Dulwich College, who felt that property prices would
fall and affect the College's income, and by the engineer and inventor Sir Henry Bessemer
(1813-1898), a local resident, whose home would
look down towards the proposed building, the project went ahead and the
foundation stone was laid in June 1885.

The St
Saviour's Union Infirmary opened in April 1887. It had 723
beds and had cost £50,000 to build. Its frontage
along East Dulwich Grove measured 700 ft (210 metres). Built
in the typical pavilion-plan layout, it had a large 2-storey central
administrative block with two projecting wings at the front.
The west wing contained the Medical Superintendent's
residence. In the east wing were the Committee Room and,
above it, apartments for the Matron and Assistant Matron, bedrooms for
the senior nurses and mess rooms and day rooms for the nurses.
The central portion contained various offices for the
Superintendent, clerks and stewards, and Matron's sitting toom.
Above these was the chapel, some 70 ft (21 metres) long and
28 ft (23 metres) wide. The basement, which extended under
the centre and the two wings, was used for storage of foodstuffs, beer
and coal. An underground tramway enabled trolleys to
transport the coal.

On either
side of the central block were a pair of double 3-storey ward blocks,
placed roughly in a north-south direction so as to make the best use of
daylight. The 24 Nightingale wards (12 for men and
12 for women) contained between 26 to 30 beds each, and the open
balconies at the ends of the wards were large enough for three to four
patients to be wheeled out in their beds onto them. Each ward
had a two-bedded isolation ward, a day room and staff rooms.
The bathrooms and WCs were located in sanitary towers at the
far end of each ward. Corridors on each floor - 9 ft (2.7
metres) wide - connected the ward blocks with the central
administrative block. The ground floor corridor was enclosed,
but the upper two storeys were open, so that patients could benefit
from fresh air. Heating for the wards was supplied by open
fireplaces and hot water pipes. The centre of each floor of
the ward blocks was fitted with a telephone, as were the Medical
Superintendent's residence and various other points in the building.

The
porter's lodge, containing an office, a parlour and bedroom for the
porter, was located at the entrance of the Infirmary on East Dulwich
Grove. Close to the entrance gates were the receiving wards -
one for male and one for female patients. These also
contained the attendants' rooms, bathrooms and clothes stores.
There were also two padded rooms lined with india-rubber
padding.

The
kitchens and scullery were on the ground floor to the rear of the
centre block. Bedrooms for 70 nurses and servants were on the
first and second floors of separate blocks behind the east and west
wings, connected to them (in case of fire) only by light iron bridges
on the second floor.

In 1902
the Infirmary was renamed the Southwark Union Infirmary, after St
Saviour's Union became the Southwark Union in 1901.

During
WW1, following the second Battle of Ypres in the spring/summer of 1915,
the number of casualties had
risen alarmingly and the existing number of hospital beds was
insufficient. The War Office approached the Local Government
Board for permission to use some Poor Law Infirmaries temporarily.
Both Southwark and Lambeth Unions were asked to participate
in the scheme. The Southwark Union Infirmary was the first
such institution in London to be evacuated. Within two weeks,
166 of its patients had been transferred to the Newington workhouse
infirmary in Walworth, 134 to the Lambeth
Infirmary in Renfrew Street, and a further 39 adults and 98
children to the Christchurch workhouse infirmary in Lambeth.

The Royal
Army Medical Corps (RAMC) took over the Infirmary on 11th November,
1915, and it was renamed the Southwark Military Hospital at the
insistence of the Guardians. The existing staff was retained
and augmented with nurses from the V.A.D.
As well as 55 RAMC personnel, there were 15 Sisters, 28 Staff
Nurses, 59 probationers, 40 orderlies and ancillary staff. The number
of beds was increased to 820, with tents erected in the grounds as
sleeping accommodation for those patients who could be ambulant during
the day. The Hospital received a large proportion of Empire
troops - Australians, South Africans and Canadians. By 1918
wounded Americans were also being admitted.

The
Hospital was returned to the Guardians in April 1919. Of the
12,522 soldiers treated at the Hospital, only 119 had died - less than
1%.

Civilian
patients began to be transferred back in May 1919, and in July 1919 a
Peace Day celebration was arranged for the patients. They
received an egg for breakfast and, later, a meal with chicken and new
potatoes, followed by stewed fruit, jelly or blancmange. Tea
and cake were served later. The 45 child patients also
received toys.

In 1921
it was renamed the Southwark Hospital.

When the
LCC took over administrative control in 1931 it became a general
hospital and was renamed the Dulwich Hospital. The ground
floor wards were converted to an Out-Patient Department, offices and
laboratories, thus reducing the number of beds to 423.
Additional facilities were also built, including a new
operating theatre, pharmacy, and a new boiler house with a chimney
stack.

During
WW2 the Hospital treated local civilian air-raid casualties and,
although bombs exploded nearby, its buildings did not receive a direct
hit.

In 1948 the
Hospital joined the NHS, coming under the
control of the Camberwell Hospital Management Committee, which included
St Giles and St
Francis' Hospital.

In 1964 it
joined the King's College Hospital Group. Its
Accident and Emergency Department was closed, but it became a District
Hospital with a centre for renal treatment.

In 1984 St
Francis' Hospital,
originally the Constance
Road Institution of the Camberwell Union, became the North Wing of the
Dulwich Hospital and a subway was built under the railway
to link the two sites. At this time the Dulwich Hospital had
295
beds, while St Francis' Hospital had 170 beds for acute geriatric
patients and 17 beds for young disabled people.

In 1988 a new
£1m renal ward, designed by Sir Terence Conran,
opened. The money had been raised locally over five years.

Present status (January 2008)
English Heritage did not regard the buildings as of sufficient merit to
be
preserved. The wards and ancilliary buildings were
demolished,
but the French-style chateau main entrance block and the original
railings have been retained.

A new community
hospital opened in part of the South Wing site in 2007.
The North Wing
has been redeveloped as new housing, but the remainder of the South
Wing site (2 acres) is still being debated.

Update: October 2010

A War
Memorial
was erected in front of the Hospital to commemorate the 119 troops who
died there. During the 1950s it was dismantled while the entrance
road was being redeveloped and stored at Grove
Park Hospital.
The cross and shaft were subsequently lost but the base remains
and the War Memorial was re-dedicated after restoration in 2009.

The main entrance to the Dulwich
Community Hospital with the former
administration block in the centre.

The original wrought iron
railings have also been preserved.

Ward blocks (above and below) along East
Dulwich Grove.

A view of the turrets
from the nearby East Dulwich railway station (renamed from Champion
Hill station in 1888).

Update: November 2010

There has been little change in the last 3 years. The central
block and main entrance are now free of hoardings.

The surviving buildings.

A temporary building nestles between the old ward blocks.

The War Memorial has been newly restored and is located to the right of
the main entrance drive.
The eastern part of the site remains a wasteland behind a blue fence.